Afraid to be Burnt
by Nekare
Summary: [short drabble collection] Amon knows he’ll be burnt. He doesn’t seem to care, though. [11. The morning after, and Amon can't seem to sleep.]
1. Loaded Guns

Rating: G

Character: Amon, Robin.

Words: 122

Summary: Robin's powers are growing. Amon doesn't think he can stop her.

**Loaded Guns**

**By: Nekare**

Amon can't help but think that Robin is a loaded gun, ready to go off in any moment. The power within her is growing, dripping from her every pore in all of her actions; warmth seeping from her fingertips as she touched a wall, the water for her morningcoffee already boiling by the time she wakes up.

He knows she's tried to stop it, to bury it inside her once again, where it's been hidden all of her life, waiting to go out; but he's a hunter, able to smell fear, and that's the scent that's permeated the air around her since the Factory. She can't stop it. And neither can he.

Robin's pure fire, and he knows he'll get burnt.


	2. Faith

Rating: G

Character: Amon

Words: 112

Summary: Amon once prayed too.

**Faith**

**By: Nekare**

The fact that he once got down on his knees and prayed to the higher being wasn't something Amon liked everyone to know.

The fact that he had once had the Faith everyone seemed to know about was something he preferred to keep to himself, along with the story of how exactly he lost it; drowned in a pool of his mother's blood, Witch's blood.

The fact that something alike Faith was creeping into his head, dripping slow and steady, everytime he saw Robin kneeled in a church, eyes closed and lips moving with silent prayer;was something that he _definitely_ didn't want anyone to know.

Being unfeeling was easier, after all.


	3. Unexpected Consequences

Rating: PG-13

Character: Doujima, Sakaki.

Words: 118

Summary: There's a consequence for every action. They're not always unpleasant.

**Unexpected Consequences**

**By: Nekare**

Doujima and Sakaki sleep together one day, because they've both been lost in this new word after the fall of the Factory, in need of something tangible after the spoonful of lies they've been fed. So they sleep together, silence and awkwardness; and it really shouldn't mean anything.

But then it does.

There are unexpected consequences, and neither likes them. Not the blushing and fumbling the next day, not the warmth they seek into simple touches (hands brushing when the coffee pot is passed, stolen rides on his bike), not the fact that they're both looking at other one in a whole different light suddenly.

Neither likes the situation, but neither is too keen on stopping it.


	4. Happy Memories

Rating: G

Character: Robin

Words: 185

Summary: Robin's happiest days.

**Happy Memories**

**By: Nekare**

A long time ago, Robin used to think the days in the convent had been the best of her life, spicy incense filling her nose at every step and quiet conversations with the supreme being; moss in the ancient walls and soft canticles from the nuns at night, just after the evening mass.

She used to think that, and she couldn't actually see a reason why she shouldn't.

But every time she gazed at Amon sleeping in a bed next to her in one the interminable cheap hotels they stayed at, or every time she talked to Nagira in a graffiti-violated payphone lost somewhere in the world, every time they encountered Doujima in a dark alley with the killing order in her pocket and she would let them go with a wink and a finger to her lips, every single time she thought of the friends she had never had before; She couldn't figure out why amidst the tiredness of the run she felt the happiest she had ever being.

So she smiled at the lone photograph she had of the STN-J, and stopped thinking.


	5. The End

This _was_ supposed to be shorter, but I never manage to keep it to a hundred words… (**In True Meanings: **These are really short as they're challenges to a WHR drabble community in LJ. I'm glad you're liking them!)

**The End**

**By: Nekare**

Amon knows goodbye isn't so far away, at least not as much as he would want it to be; creeping up around them and trying to swallow him whole, bury him in despair and madness because that's what human beings are supposed to feel when they're ordered to Hunt another one (even if she's a witch, and technically, not a human), to end another life.

So he watches Robin through the corner of his eyes everytime he gives her a ride home, a charade of a comaderie; he watches her standing on the balcony with the old shirt she's wearing being blown by the wind, chestnut-colored hair flying freely out of its bounds.

And when the Hunt order finally comes he is surprised to find he still feels all this emotions he had thought for so long he had lost.


	6. Color blind

The challenge was **Black/White**, and I rather like this one. Thanks so much for the reviews!

**Color-Blinded**

**By: Nekare**

White: SOLOMON. Black: Witches. The only truth Amon had ever known, as color-blinded as a loyal dog; ready to attack and deaf to reason. That had been Amon's entire world, until Robin had come and had brought with her a new world painted in a colorful palette (autumn hair and eyes tinted with life green), regardless of her white attitude (so pure, and yet, not so innocent to life) and her black attire (severe as her convictions).

He had been drowned in the colors, new and vibrant and so full of a new point of view; but in the end, while on the run with her, he realized he had only been seeing in shades of gray, different from his usual, but gray nonetheless.

Then he watched her stare in wonder at the snow falling over head, never having seen it before in Italy; the white snowflakes becoming ornaments on her hair and her eyes dancing with mirth; and_that's _the moment when he finally knows what color is.


	7. Could Have Been

Something larger! (kind of...) Written 'cause I'm bored and I'm itching to_ write_, but I have somewhat of a nasty block with my original stories. The prompt for this was: **If**. Hope you like it (and let me know, I live for reviews XD).

**Could Have Been**

**By: Nekare**

If. The word plagues Karasuma, making her wonder over and over again what could have happen in Robin had been killed, if Amon had decided her death would be as easy to accept as Kate's had been; clean and simple and sad, yes, but nothing to spill much tears about.

(And the thought of Robin lying in a scarlet pool of blood, young eyes open and unseeing and her last thoughts being of the quiet betrayal of the STN-J; makes her shudder in fear.)

She wonders if the deep trust that now ties seven lives together tightly would have even been born if Robin had been sent to research the mystery of the Arcanum in any other place in the world, and whether being strangers working together would have been as nice as the warm feeling inside her whenever she remembers she can put her life in the hands of any of them at any given second. (The answer is no.)

When she's at her gloomiest, she sometimes even wonders what would have happen if she hadn't been born a Witch (a controlled one, but a Witch nonetheless) and had been able to live a normal childhood (chasing birds on parks, laughing at bubbles in the bath) and adolescence (chasing boys on parks and laughing at the awkward limbs of her significant other in the bath); instead of risking her life to fight her own race on a daily basis.

Then she thinks of Robin's unsigned letters from a country far away on her desk, a hasty footnote with reassurance words from Amon; of Michael's bright eyes every time she brings him a doughnut to his new flat, of the new skirt Doujima forced her to buy along with Nagira (who complained the entire time but when Doujima promised him a physical reward if he was a good boy), and of Sakaki's hands leaving ghost imprints in her bare stomach.

And then she doesn't want to change anything after all.


	8. Circle

Written 'cause I'm stuck with a Hannah Abbott gen fic, that just refuses to come out right. That, and because I've always wondered about how little magic they actually had on the series besides personal powers. The prompt was **Circles**. Hope you like it, and feedback will be loved.

**Circle**

**By: Nekare**

The circle around Robin shines brightly, golden in some places and bleeding into orange in the places she doesn't concentrate enough in; the runes playing in her mind in hope she'll find the mistake, the one that keeps the circle from being a perfect protection spell, the one she ought to have mastered by now and the one that still eludes her the way her flame mocks herself when it dances freely and out of her control.

She squints with the effort of keeping it working, beads of sweat evaporating on her brow with the warmth she's exuding. She recites the symbols again, slowly and methodic, her voice dripping with the magic that ties the runes to herself. Her concentration slips when she sees the frown on Juliano's face, and the flawed circle dissipates, leaving the room in vague darkness once again.

Robin lowers her head with shame, her hands fisted and trying to swallow the disappointment with herself; some of the chalk she used to write the curved symbols coming free of the enchantment and staining her flowing skirts with the white she knows she doesn't deserve.

Juliano sighs heavily in front of her and moves to the door, not looking at her. "You should try harder, Robin." He says with his hand on the doorknob, shaking his head slightly in the reproachable way that pained Robin more than if she was punished.

"I will, father. I will." She says to the ground, and when she hears the door being closed her eyes narrow, the circle coming to life again. She concentrates on the vague orange by her right, and moments later, the room is bathed with the light glow of the spell, pure golden and perfect on every way. She smiles softly, but she doesn't delude herself.

She knows she'll never be able to do it with the priest watching her.


	9. Touching You

Written for the promt: **Minor Character,** and a personal one, **Touch.** I do think I went overboard with Toudou, and it's characterization is vaguely weird; but I like it in all. Hope you do too!

ps. Feedback will be loved dearly.

**Touching You**

**By: Nekare**

Touch had always been forbidden to Toudou, his Japanese upbringing teaching him to forget the human touch everyone craves deep down, and for a time, Todou didn't actually thought he every would need it. Then came María, whose touch was insistent and warm; natural to someone who had grown up needing so much contact from his never there father, and who basked in it, the simple pleasure of feeling skin in a completely platonic way.

Toudou hadn't grown used to it, though, and along with María's half hugs and firm handshakes; his heart began to beat faster and his palms go sweaty. Quite a ridiculous thing for a respected scientist, he thought with shame when he lay in bed at nights, thinking of her; but nothing he could avoid.

Eventually, he learnt to yearn for the next brush of her skin against his, became addicted to it. That was about the time the idea of salvation and hope and María got so mingled together he couldn't think of them on their own.

It was for the best, in the end.


	10. Just Breathe

Dedicated to Rapunzel, who didn't want to make me into her writing slave (even when I was totally willing) and that when she finally cracked gave me **Robin's necklace** as a promt. Also written for the promt **Illusions** at the WHR drabble community in LJ. Feedback will be loved, as I rather like this one.

**Just Breathe**

**By: Nekare**

Robin casts a glamour spell on her necklace three weeks into hiding, and when Amon asks the reason she remains stubbornly quiet. He can still sense it though, sharp against his black layer-covered body when they hide in an enclosed space; the tingling sound of curiosity as the chain makes a metallic rhythmic sound as they run for their lives, the way she will mouth an invisible necklace in a nervous habit that she can't control and that makes Amon unable to control himself too.

Three years later and his mind is still plagued with the uncountable meanings of the unseen accessory that has driven him mad. He asks again after a near miss, adrenaline reigning in his body with the fear and the flush on her face, and boldly takes it into his hand, fingering the strange texture and only seeing his own hand, fingertips white with the smooth texture and mind running wildly with the way the chain wraps itself, cool and smooth, on his skin.

She smiles then, stands on tiptoe, and breathes the secret into his ear.


	11. Witching Hour

Written for the lovely Zurizip, who wrote me a drabble too (go check it out!). Inspired with the promts **The Day After** and **Holidays**. Hope you like it!

**Witching Hour**

**By: Nekare**

They first have sex on Christmas Eve. Hesitant touches at first, over heated skin at last, and those haunting green eyes shining in the darkness of his candle (Robin) lighted bedroom. Whispered words of wonder at finding her sitting on his bed, panted incoherent words from her lips about mistletoe and loneliness and want, safe on his mind forever where he can replay her teeth on his lips and his hands on her hips.

(Where he can hide forever in case it never happens again).

Headquarter is coming to life once again, Robin's army of Witches and hopes readying for a new day of survival, waiting for their child-woman leader, the green-eyed Hope that lays beside him in a tangle of white sheets, white skin and not so white dreams. Amon watches the light dancing on her skin, and breaths the air coming from her slightly opened mouth, reverently, a part of himself that is still all hunting reflexes hating himself from having lost control of himself, of her, of life.

Robin kisses him when she wakes, sleepy and more grown up at nineteen he ever thought she'd be, dressing in silence and muttering a quiet i Merry Christmas /i as she closes the door on her way out, going to her followers and fighting for a future.

Amon is under her spell, but lately, he can bring himself to care.


End file.
